Roots
May 24th, 2007
I’ve been pretty much out of commission for the last few days because of some sort of cold/flu/crud that has been going around and found me. Still not over it, but doing better than I have for several days. So I’m back to posting.
This is Mo and some interesting tree roots from our hiking around in the Ozarks in March.
Today I’m at the studio making prints. I have a new printer, an Epson R260, and the quality is so much better than anything I’ve seen before, including chemical prints, that I’m reprinting my entire portfolio. It has been a bit of a challenge to adapt to this printer, however. Always before with Epson printers I’ve been able to make fine prints with the default settings right out of the box. Not this time. The inks are very different. I have printed on matte surface paper for years. I don’t like glossy prints. I like the surface of the print to be invisible, not a factor when the print is viewed. But prints on matte paper with this printer just looked awful. The blacks were muddy and mottled. I couldn’t do anything to make them look right. Finally I decided to try a different paper. Wow! On luster surface paper the prints look fantastic. So much better that I can’t put the new prints beside my old ones…so I’m going through a lot of ink and paper.
I’m a convert to this new printer and ink set. It is still a dye ink, but Wilhelm rates the permanence under normal viewing conditions as 98 years. That’s much better than chemical color prints and almost as good as the pigment ink printers. Epson has a winner here again.
Goodbye Big Bend
May 21st, 2007
This is the last Big Bend photo I’m going to post, for a while at least. For a place that I didn’t really like, Big Bend did actually produce quite a few photos that I think will be in my portfolio for a long time to come. I don’t think I’ll ever go back there, but I’m glad I did make the trip.
This is Niecy stretching outside the fake ruin at Three Dike Hill, the most productive location we found in the Big Bend area. You can see the fantastic distorted rock formations behind the shack. On in the background is the large hill that is actually Three Dike Hill. In the upper right you can clearly see two of the three volcanic “dikes” that give the hill its name. Niecy’s geologist husband, who visited this site as a college student many years ago on a geology field trip, explained to me how those dikes were formed, but it went right over my head…or maybe I was just too concentrated on seeing what I could do photographically with those rock formations and my two beautiful, talented models.
I’ll now start editing the shoots I did on the way to Big Bend, in the Ozarks and near Houston. So I’ll start posting those photos next. In a couple weeks I’ll be off to West Virginia to photograph in some of my favorite places. West Virginia has been a favorite destination for motorcycle trips for the past 25 years or so…I know a lot of great locations there and many times I’ve found myself wishing I had a figure model available to take full advantage of the locations. Soon I’ll be able to do that and you’ll see the results here, of course.
Hole In The Rock
May 19th, 2007
Shot in another of the many holes in the rock formations at Three Dike Hill. Sort of makes me think of a gem stone being chipped out of the surrounding rock.
The art walk was a lot of fun last night. A bunch of friends came by to enjoy the food and beer and a lot of new people wandered in to see my work. Also got to see more of what my neighbors in the building are doing. Lots of fine artists in the Front Street Buildings.
Holy Rocks
May 17th, 2007
Shot on our last day at Big Bend, on those wonderful rocks at Three Dike Hill. If you are getting tired of Big Bend (something I really couldn’t understand) take heart, I’m just about through the Big Bend shoot. Soon I’ll be posting photos from the earlier shoots in the Ozarks and the Houston area.
The new laptop is working very well. I don’t have any real complaints about Vista. Got new DVD-burning software and installed it yesterday. It’s the same program I was using before, just with “Vista-compatible” on the label. Now why Roxio couldn’t just provide a patch to make the same program I already had work with Vista, I don’t know…oh, wait…that would have meant I didn’t have to buy a new version…ahhhh…
Anyway the new laptop will make things easier on my next shooting expedition in June. Very different location this time.
For anyone in the Dayton, Ohio area, don’t miss the art walk this Friday. I’ll be in my studio in the Front Street Buildings from 5 to 10 pm if you want to stop by. Food and drinks will be available. Say hi if you are in the neighborhood.
Between a rock and a hard place
May 15th, 2007
In a hole
May 13th, 2007
Another Window
May 11th, 2007
Shack
May 9th, 2007
At the base of those wild rock formations were a couple small ruined shacks. When we first found them we thought they were “ghost town” ruins like those we had seen in Terlingua and at the abandoned mercury mine we’d visited before. They looked pretty much the same from the outside. But when we got close and went inside we saw that these shacks were made from fake plastic sheets with rock texture. Apparently this is also an old movie set of some kind. They still look pretty good, though.
Rock curves
May 7th, 2007
The shapes in the rocks at Two Dike Hill were just amazing. Of course I had to fight the sun to get a photo. In this case I was fighting flare and almost succeeded in eliminating it. If you look critically you can see some flare effects on the left side of the photo, but not so bad as to be a problem. In fact I think the subdued tones caused by the flare help make the form of the model stand out from the background in a good way here.
The Fake Church
May 5th, 2007
